KOREA BOX OFFICE: ‘KUNG FU PANDA 4' RETAINS LEAD, AS ‘GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE' MELTS
‘Kung Fu Panda 4' retained its lead at the top of the South Korean box office on what was the quietest cinema-going weekend in more than a year.
The animated franchise movie held up reasonably. It maintained a nearly 44% market share, dropped only 32% week-on-week and was untroubled by competition from new releases. The film earned $1.91 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). After 12 days on release, "Kung Fu Panda 4" has a cumulative total of $8.48 million.
"Exhuma," which had held the top spot for six weeks before losing it a week ago, remained in second spot. It earned $772,000 with a nearly 18% market share. Since releasing on Feb. 22, it has amassed a cumulative $82.7 million, earned from 11.8 million spectators.
While the top two films showed endurance, the overall box office market looked sickly. Across the nation's roughly 2,500 cinemas, aggregate weekend revenue fell to just $4.37 million. The last time that weekend revenues were that weak was in October 2022.
Business is likely to be given a major boost from Wednesday by the release of "The Roundup: Punishment," the fourth film in the Don Lee-starring crime comedy action series. (Previews for "Punishment" took $126,000 over the weekend and have already built a total of $240,000.) But the wider pattern of tentpole-dependent seasonality may be cause for concern.
Third place over the most recent weekend belonged to "The Last 10 Years," a Japanese romance film which first played in Korea in May 2023. It scored $319,000 over the weekend and has an all-time cumulative of $2.87 million.
"Troll Factory," a Korean crime drama about online scams, was in fourth place with $201,000. After four weekends on release, it has a $6.65 million cumulative.
"Dune: Part Two" earned $146,000 for sixth place by virtue of its higher ticket prices. Local charts, based on admissions numbers, showed it in seventh spot. Since releasing on Feb. 28 in Korea, the film has earned $16.9 million from 1.99 million ticket sales.
U.S. horror film, "The First Omen" earned $125,000 over the weekend. After three weekend on release in Korea, it has earned $1.30 million in total.
"Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" earned just $73,000, giving it a cumulative of $3.68 million since releasing on March 27.
"Leon," the Luc Besson-directed title from nearly thirty years ago, enjoyed a re-release in Korea and earned $40,800 in tenth place over the weekend.